Ewan Waite

Ewan started competing in the summer of 2011 on the track and cross country and got nationally classified as a T38 athlete in 2012.

Ewan is a nationally classified T38 middle distance SportsAid athlete supported by the GLL Sport Foundation. At club level Ewan runs for Gateshead Harriers, and has also represented Scotland at the Cerebral Palsy World Games.

Ewan’s biggest achievement in athletics would be at the Cerebral Palsy World Games, August 2015 in Nottingham where he picked up two gold medals in the 800m, 3000m and a silver in the 1500m. This coincided with an International classification and has enables Ewan to compete abroad.

Since being classified Ewan have always been ranked in the top two in the UK for the 800m and 1500m and at the end of last year he was ranked 9th in the world for the 1500m and 11th in the world for the 800m.

“The amount of travelling associated with athletics and accommodation costs have been a huge burden in the past. Physiotherapy costs add up as my cerebral palsy has meant that I need regular physiotherapy when needed for niggles or soreness, but with the help of GLL Sport Foundation, they have helped me to tailor my year around big competitions and training costs, whilst helping me to access facilities for warm weather training in the winter time. Thanks GLL Sport Foundation, I hope the remainder of the year is successful.”

So far this year has been very frustrating for Ewan and in his words he said ‘I haven’t been able to transfer how I’m doing in training into the racing, but I know from past years that I tend to get PBs in the late summer so hopefully this will be the case this year as well.”

Unfortunately Ewan missed out on selection for the IPC Europeans in Grosseto, Italy next month (June) which he felt was realistic enough to aim for this year. As mentioned before the races haven’t gone as planned, instead the target is the English Senior Disability Champs at the end of July and the Age Group Champs at the end of August as races where Ewan wants to reach his peak performance.
Ewan said, “If I can perform well and produce PBs then that will give me great satisfaction heading into the Winter as I’m looking towards 2020 in Tokyo rather than Rio this year.”

The GLL Sport Foundation are very proud to be supporting Ewan this year. Whilst he might not be going to Rio, we look to support athletes striving for Tokyo and beyond and believe Ewan has the talent to get there.